Conventionally, interactive voice response systems allow users to access financial data (such as credit card information associated with a particular credit card company, bank account data associated with a particular bank, etc.), enterprise phone directories, help desk information, and so on. Such systems are generally configured to assist a user to achieve a pre-defined goal in a particular domain. Such systems are domain specific in that they allow the user to retrieve pre-defined categories of information related to a particular business entity, such as a balance of minutes associated with a cellular phone subscriber account or a credit balance associated with a particular user's credit card account. These type of interactive voice response systems are enterprise specific (domain-specific), meaning that the user must contact the enterprise's system directly, such as by calling a phone number associated with the enterprise to retrieve the information.
In recent years, many corporations implemented secure web site access to allow users to access account information through a secure socket layer connection over the Internet. With respect to a credit card company for example, such connections can be accessed by a user via an Internet browser application to view recent transaction information, available credit, usage data, and so on. Typically, the user may utilize the Internet browser application executing on a computing device, such as a smart phone, a portable computing device (laptop, tablet computer, etc.), or other computing device configured to execute processor-readable instructions.
Recently, Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. has introduced a Siri® software application that operates in conjunction with the Apple iPhone®. Siri® stands for “Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface” and is a software application that is designed to be an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator. Siri® uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of web services. Other natural language speech-based applications also exist for other types of computing devices, including smart phones that operate using operating systems other than that produced by Apple Computer®.